The evolution of Terrence Ross

On November 3rd, 2015, Terrence Ross was signed to a 3 year, $33 million contract extension. Fast forward roughly one year; Ross is proving he’s worth the Toronto Raptors’ investment — and more.

Welcome to Toronto

“We felt Terrence was that guy.”

Terrence Ross was drafted 8th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors – an entirely unfamiliar team, city and country for the Portland, Oregon native. The Raptors’ braintrust saw everything they wanted in the swingman after exhaustively scouting him at the University of Washington for two years. The feeling after hearing former NBA Commissioner, David Stern call Terrence Ross’ name was an all-too-familiar one for Raptors fans. Names of renowned Raptors’ draft busts such as Michael Bradley, Rafael Araujo and Joey Graham began to flood the minds of Raptors fans across the city.

“Who in the world did we just draft?”

Ross was selected before well-known NBA prospects such as Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb and Austin Rivers. Ross was projected by many media outlets to be drafted in the 15-30 range of the 2012 NBA Draft.

Then-Raptors general manager, Bryan Colangelo had different thoughts:

“Terrence was always listed for consideration at the eighth spot,” Colangelo said. “You don’t worry about where you’re drafting, you’re worried about what piece best fits your organization.

“We felt that Terrence was that guy.” (Source: Gilbert Coyle – The Canadian Press)

After relentless YouTube searches, fans soon realized what they were watching wasn’t quite as bad as they were making it.

The kid was athletic, had defensive ability and could shoot the lights out – he looked talented.